WNBA Players and Their NBA Counterparts

Jaylen Brown has surely become a model for athletic wings. He entered the league as a pretty raw talent, but year after year, he seems to have improved exponentially. It makes you wonder whether he is actually capable of another jump. Although he has some shooting limitations and you’d love for him to handle the ball a little better, he has proven he can be a stable offensive engine when you give him the keys. He thrives in transition and isolation, using his athleticism to gain advantages. This year, though, it felt like he added a little craftiness and skill to his already uber-talented arsenal.

I’ve compared a lot of WNBA players to Jaylen Brown because I view him as the blueprint for a certain type of player, but Kahleah Copper resembles him the most. She plays similarly, thriving in isolation and using a combination of strength and a little wiggle to finish around the rim. She can get a good shot most of the time from any level, but she’s obviously at her best when using her athleticism close to the rim. That doesn’t mean she can’t shoot from behind the arc or in the midrange. In fact, her efficiency and ability to avoid relying on heavily contested jump shots have impressed me over the years.

There’s also a basketball personality or identity comparison between the two that I want to touch on. There are certain games where it feels like Copper would sacrifice a baby to win. Her competitiveness jumps off the screen, and she can go on runs where her will to win completely takes over a game. It feels like she will do absolutely whatever it takes to win that game, like this moment is the only thing that matters in the world.

I saw a lot of that from Jaylen Brown this year. He would just decide to put the team on his back and take every shot, no matter how tired he looked or how high his usage had already been. You just saw a guy with a will to win, something you sometimes wonder has begun to fade from our league. You wonder whether players even care about the results anymore until you see either of these two at the end of a game.

This was really the first player comparison I ever thought of while watching the WNBA a few years back. I went to UNLV and lived in Las Vegas, so the Aces will forever and always be my favorite team. At the time, I was familiar with how renowned the organization was, but the only players I could actually name were Plum and Wilson. It wasn’t until I started watching that I realized we had more than two superstars on our team. We actually had four… I digress.

I compare Young to Holiday because they’re both solid offensive guards who can take over when their teams need them to. I could add Derrick White to the comparison, but Young and Holiday have a little more bully and power to their play styles. They’re both good at catch-and-shoot threes and elite at finding their way to and around the rim. However, it’s the two-way prowess that has always been my favorite part of both players. They’re elite, historically good defenders for their positions. They’re elite in ways the box score obviously reflects, but they also do so much more that a number can’t always contextualize.

They can single-handedly destroy an offense’s pick-and-roll, eliminate the player they’re guarding by making sure that player never touches the ball, and make up for any personnel shortcomings. They both get steals, but it’s their ball denial, the pressure they put on the player they’re guarding, and their ability to do it without fouling that I respect so much. They both have great IQ and character and, as the results show, play a winning brand of basketball.

I think Jackie Young has a little more of a green light and a better ability to get good shots than Jrue Holiday, obviously in relation to their leagues, so I had her as high as 13 on my Top 20 list. I’ll always be a Jackie Young fan because she was the first guard in the league to make me rethink how talented the WNBA is. Now, people have always been high on Jackie Young. She was a No. 1 pick, for Christ’s sake. But I don’t think people realize how historically great she is. She’s literally Scottie Pippen as a guard.

Hiedeman is one of my favorite players to watch in the WNBA from a pure getting-buckets entertainment standpoint. I wanted to compare these two because what they can do to their home crowds when they have it going is unique. Some players, like Marine Johannès, immediately come to mind as having a similar effect, but they don’t have the same three-level, well-rounded game Pritchard and Hiedeman have displayed.

I had a coworker who sort of watched the WNBA, but mainly because he was friends with Hiedeman’s brother or cousin or something like that. Rooting for the Stud Buds, then coming to work and talking about an insane run or a shot one of them hit at the end of a quarter, is a bonding experience I’ll always hold onto.

But back to a little analysis. Pritchard and Hiedeman are both undersized and have had to rely on skill and IQ to find a place in the league. As the first player off your bench, its fair to say you might have a championship-caliber roster. However, as a starter, their impact can be neutralized a little bit. Regardless, all they do is dribble through traffic or cook their defender like it’s nothing and give you tough bucket after tough bucket. When their team goes on a run, it’s usually a shot from one of them that causes the other team to call timeout because they’re quite simply flamethrowers. It’s never a good sign when Hiedeman or Pritchard drains a three, turns around, starts hyping up the crowd, and feeds off the energy in the arena. It usually means game over.

I’m not sure how much longer we’ll get to see Hiedeman play important basketball. Sadly, she’s stuck on the dreadful Seattle Storm, where talent runs out the door as fast as kids on the last day of school. Still, she’s in a cool veteran role where she gets to start and mentor the young potential superstars on the roster. It’s been awesome to see her prove she still belongs in this league over the past year.

This comparison might receive some pushback, which I totally understand. I mean, how do you compare someone to an alien? Victor has a chance to be quite literally the greatest basketball player we’ve ever seen. In my eyes, he’s a mix of Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He pairs fundamentally sound play from the inside and outside with out-of-this-world athleticism. If you could make a basketball player in a lab, it would probably look something like Wemby.

I do think Dom has a chance to become one of the all-time greats in the WNBA, though. I really can’t find anyone who doesn’t think that. She made the All-Star team this year, but truthfully, I’ve been a little underwhelmed by her development from last year to this one. However, the sky is the limit for her. If you’re familiar with Malonga, you probably know she can dunk pretty easily. It’s that athleticism that makes her a generational talent. She’s also very agile and has smoother movement than someone like Brittney Griner. She’s very young, but she already carries herself with a tremendous amount of humility. She’s developing her game outside the paint, and on certain nights, instead of just showing flashes of potential, she totally takes over.

It’s fair to wish she were more dominant because she has the potential to be impactful literally every second of the game. Wemby’s presence alone changes entire offensive game plans. He is the first player I’ve watched whom opponents don’t even test him anymore. They just make a U-turn and reset, which was unheard of by even the best defenders before he entered the league.

Malonga has the potential to do that on defense, but the results haven’t been as matter-of-fact. She’s a good defender, but considering her potential, she leaves a lot to be desired. As a writer, I’ve decided that since Malonga could very well become one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen in the WNBA, I need to be overly critical of her at times. If not, I feel like we, as a basketball community, are getting robbed of a player who could be transcendent.

She has everything she needs to take over the league, but she has barely scratched the surface. I’m not saying she needs to become some three-point sniper or be as offensively gifted as someone like A’ja Wilson. It’s the simple fundamentals that frustrate me. She can’t consistently punish single coverage possession after possession. She misses a lot of layups, gives up too many rebounds, settles for long jump shots too often, and allows too many mid players to get easy lay ups.

Based on what I’ve seen from her personality on the court, I believe she’s a hard worker and will put it all together. But there’s more variance in her career outcome than I initially thought when she joined the league. She could be Kareem, or she could be Porziņģis. Both were great, both are champions, and Tingus’s career has undoubtedly been a success. But for the gifts God gave him, there was another level to reach. Sorry for all that negativity. I’m still a big fan, Dom.

A lot of people are familiar with Flau’jae Johnson at this point, whether it’s from her music, her time at LSU, or a commercial. However, myself included, not everyone was all that familiar with her actual game on the court. I knew she had a big personality, but I always wondered whether she could actually back it up or even what she played like.

I’ve compared her personality and poise to Anthony Edwards, who, even in the tensest moments, is on the court laughing with his veterans and apparently unfazed by any type of pressure. I think that’s her ceiling, but at the moment, her play style is closer to the Thompson twins. She has the same length and athleticism the twins have, but her offensive game is closer to Amen’s at this point. Granted, she’s a slightly better shooter than he is and can definitely get hot from behind the arc if you let her. I think there’s a big leap awaiting Johnson next year, so I’ve already bought some fandom stock. Still, you can tell she needs way more reps, especially in big moments, which is something we’ll have to wait on.

I wanted to make this comparison because, like Amen, Flau’jae makes me say maybe two or three times a game, “What the f*** was that?” followed immediately by, “I literally don’t think anyone else in the league could have done that.” There’s a mix of one-of-one athleticism and creativity that leaves you in awe. Some of the hang time and in-air readjustments defy things you thought were universally accepted within basketball.

It leads to beautiful highlights, but both players are, at the moment, reduced to highlight machines. Obviously, all three of these players are winning players, but they still show a lot of youthful mistakes. They’re improving quickly and figuring out pieces of the puzzles defenses throw at them, but there’s an obvious gap between someone like Amen and a player who has figured out how to put it all together, like Ant.

Keep your eye on Flau’jae. She’s coming for the league, and I think it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

I’ll preface this by saying I’m a Rockets fan, and I absolutely love Reed Sheppard. There has been a lot of criticism thrown his way because he was taken ahead of Stephon Castle and hasn’t produced at the level experts projected. Similarly, it’s hard to justify Azzi Fudd going No. 1 in the draft, especially when a potential all-time great in Olivia Miles goes right behind her. That’s one redrafters, including myself, will be critiquing for years to come.

However, I’ve grown to love Azzi as a player this year and was emotionally distraught when I heard she would be out for the remainder of the season. She doesn’t deal with the same size disparity and mismatch potential that Reed will battle for his whole career, but her offensive game reminds me a lot of his. They’re both solid, capable offensive players who are dead-eye shooters from most spots on the court. Their elevation and compact, picture-perfect jump shots are things of beauty. I can’t stress that enough.

For all the flaws or current limitations these players have, and I say current because I’m confident they won’t last forever, their shooting from behind the arc is exactly as advertised. On the defensive end, both play fundamentally sound basketball, but they’re more like highlight defenders who need to get steals to make an impact on that side of the ball.

I think both players have another level to reach. If they develop, there’s no reason their comps can’t climb as high as someone as gifted as Damian Lillard, but it’s going to require a lot of work to get there. I love these two players. In fact, they’re some of my favorites in all of basketball, but they might forever be subject to criticism because of where they went in their drafts.

I remember seeing Jessica Shepard come off the bench for Minnesota and provide bursts of individual scoring that the team desperately needed, which is where my initial appreciation for her came from. I always thought she was capable of being a starter because you could tell she was stuck in a role and wasn’t fully able to spread her wings. Yes, pun intended.

This year, Johnson and Shepard have both taken leaps toward becoming all-around great basketball players who transcend a certain role. There are some point-forward flashes in both of them, but it still feels like they’re just scratching the surface of their potential, which should be terrifying for the rest of the league. I’m aware Shepard is a little older at this point in her career, but I think her prime is starting this season now that the opportunity has presented itself.

They’re both stat-sheet stuffers who can do literally everything on the court, but that still needs to translate more clearly to winning basketball or more obviously impactful basketball. My critique is that they both have the tendency to seemingly vanish and become almost unnoticeable on the court, which is why I compare the two. They need a little more oomph, which I have no doubt will come in the next few seasons.

They both thrive more at the four than the five, but they can definitely operate as small-ball centers. I also think they both thrive next to shooting centers, which is why Awa Kweir’s emergence this year has been a quietly important development for the Wings. I don’t think either player is bus-driver material, but as a second banana, either is more than capable of turning a team into a serious contender.

It took me a while to come up with this comparison. In fact, it didn’t occur to me who Leite reminded me of until she finally got the keys to her own team this year. Carla Leite was the player who made me take a deeper look into the league. She’s one player my completely unqualified eyes and talent-evaluation prowess were actually right about.

Watching her come off the bench last year, we weren’t able to fully see what Leite was capable of. At least in my opinion, she was the one who brought Ballhalla to life. There’s nothing like watching Carla Leite at the top of the key or in transition fearlessly rush into a wall of defenders and finish with a tough layup. Of course, the only other thing like it is what Tyrese Maxey does. Their courage and willingness to take a lot of contact bring home crowds to their feet more than almost any other players I’ve seen.

Now, Leite is the cornerstone of a franchise. While she needs to polish her game a little more to truly reach Maxey’s level, they both play with the same joy mixed with competitiveness. They’re performers. They’re exciting to watch. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been at home, alone on my couch in my underwear, and actually stood up after a drive where one of them got an and-one in the fourth quarter. They’re both electrifying players.

Leite still has room to grow. With that said, for a smaller guard, she gets to the line a lot and is not afraid of the moment. She has a low center of gravity, or base, that makes her quick but also sturdy enough to endure the beating that comes from getting to the rim so frequently. Leite is one of my favorite players in the league, and I think she’s going to lead the Portland Fire to a lot of wins as the years go by.

Lastly, here’s a player comparison I came up with just the other week. Both Jonquel Jones and Karl-Anthony Towns are uniquely, dare I say generationally, skilled for their positions. We’ve seen both achieve monstrous individual success and win a championship. If you’re unfamiliar with Jones’s game, it’s strikingly similar to KAT’s. Even if you removed what they can do from behind the three-point line, both would still be top-tier at their positions. They can handle the ball, make plays for others, provide solid rim protection, and score with ease. Then you add their three-point shooting, which is the main reason I compared them, and they become undeniable unicorns. They’re legitimate centers, unlike some other “unicorns” who lean toward the skinnier side, but they also possess the ability to completely take over a game as shooters. They also share a tendency to attempt a lot of “Oh no. Oh no. Oh, yes!” threes. They take shots that would be benchable offenses if they didn’t have the pedigrees they do. Instead, they’re terrifying whenever they catch fire, and contesting their shots can feel useless because of how tall they are. They provide underrated gravity and attention due to their shooting, which makes their team offense function so smoothly since spacing is never an issue. There’s also some personality stuff I won’t expand on too much, but both are eccentric players who are great with fans and in the locker room. Their positivity and confidence translate directly to how they play. Now they’re both champions, which should eradicate the skepticism they’ve had to endure from social media and basketball’s talking heads, although KAT has certainly dealt with more of it than Jones.